Manager of Planning and Allocation

Responsibilities: Create and manage, with VP Merch, detailed financial plans for all retail categories to meet or exceed strategic sales, inventory, turn and margin goals.  In partnership, develop open to buy process, sales & inventory reports, forecasting & line planning process and best practices.  Drive planning & allocations team and lead decision making to achieve financial results that maximize sales, inventory and bottom-line profitability. Analyze historical data and current trends to identify risks and opportunities by classification. Anticipate issues, forecast results, review category performance and communicate analysis and business trends. Manage, with VP Merch, the budgeting process and track results to plan. Act as liaison between buying, store operations, visual merchandising, distribution, IT, and finance to develop and communicate a comprehensive allocation strategy that aligns with store tiers, financial goals and product plans. Create and maintain a seasonal calendar that anticipates seasonal sales trends, inventory builds and business cadence. Develop and optimize replenishment strategy to ensure accurate and timely movement product to the stores. Create seasonal build analysis and develop key item flow/forecast plans. Support product entrance & exit strategy that maximizes profitable sell-throughs. Manage and develop a team structure that facilitates individual and team performance while encouraging partnership, accountability and results. Communicate financial results, forecasts & present financial plans, forecasts and strategies in strategic meetings. Collaborate with manager and peers to ensure consistency/usefulness of information, share best practices and develop systems knowledge.  

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance or Merchandising, or equivalent 5-8 years work experience. 5+ years of retail merchandise planning and store allocations experience required. Buying experience and/or an in-depth knowledge of inventory management, forecasting and business trend analysis preferred. Strong understanding of retail math including the intricacies of open to buy, gross margin, and inventory turn. Strong business acumen, including proven ability to develop financial plans, understand and communicate complex financial data, and succinctly present actionable reports. Proven ability to analyze data and historic information, to determine inventory trends & opportunities and to recommend and implement an action plan to address inventory trends and opportunities. Proven ability to successfully lead & develop collaborative teams. Demonstrated ability to manage multiple disciplines toward common goals. Proven ability to build relationships internally and externally. Working knowledge of planning and allocations software/systems preferred. Power user of Excel and other business software tools used to analyze and report merchandise trends and results. Proven fact-based decision-making and problem solving skills. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and proven ability to work with all levels of management.